A Remnant's Thoughts
by Overlord Ixmythot
Summary: One left behind. One cast aside, out of an act of spite. His thoughts, after the end of the second outbreak. An explanation is given to 'family'. Rating change, due to some of Heller and Dana's dialogue. PROTOTYPE 2 spoilers.
1. Thoughts

**A/N:** Naturally, I don't own PROTOTYPE, Alex Mercer, James Heller, or any of the other characters and concepts within. They are still the rights of Activision Inc, and Radical Entertainment. I do this, out of love for the first game's characterization of Alex Mercer, and my hatred and revulsion of just what they turned 'him' into during the second. Spoilers, naturally.

* * *

When it was all over, he felt it, more then anything else. As if something massive within himself had both been severed, and returned to him at the same time. Yet, at the same time, once again, he was helpless before it, before what it had done to him, to his _identity_. The one thing he had hated, more then the entirity of Blackwatch, the entirity of the Infected, even above Elisabeth Greene, was himself. To be more specific, Alexander J. Mercer, the original creator of DX 1118-3, codenamed _Blacklight._ A monster in human form, a man so absorbent in his own self importance that he would damn the entire world, including the only person who still viewed him as family, all because he was threatened. To be seen as even _worse_ then that self, was the ultimate attack that anything could do against him.

And that was exactly what had happened. His greatest mistake aside from freeing Greene and trusting Parker, was consuming the Supreme Hunter. In doing so, he bred about his downfall, as it were. The nuke took more out of him then he expected, and he never stopped to focus on reclaiming every bit of the organic mush that was his remains, once he reconstructed himself. Some part of the Hunter had survived, bided it's time, and regrew itself, in _his_ image. And one month, while Alex was working with Dr. Ragland, he struck. Ragland was consumed instantly. A small blessing, compared to what Alex had to deal with. The two fought, again, but Alex was the one who lost that time. The Hunter had locked him within one of the containers that he and Ragland had been using to store the dwindling suply of Infected corpses that had been slowly fading from New York's streets, Mercer having taken it upon himself to clean up what he could of the infection. It was this act that ended up saving him, even as the container was tossed into the ocean by the Hunter's new form. An Infected still yet lived within the metal shipping crate other then Mercer, which ended up saving his 'life', giving him enough material to break his way out of the container before it was compacted by the pressure of the harbor. He was weakened, however. Insanely so, even weaker then when he first rose out of that morgue. And thus, Alex had to watch, from the sidelines, as his face was plastered over the screens of the world, the outbreak he tried to prevent, branded onto his name, to watch as the Hunter spread it's own altered Blacklight strain onto the renamed New York Zero, a silent witness, only arriving back within the Red Zone when it was far too late for him to engage his doppleganger directly.

Thankfully, there was something he didn't expect. James Heller. His wife, a victim of the same virus that was contributed to his own name, his daughter, just barely surviving the first outbreak of it. His body somehow drew out more power then the Supreme Hunter planned on giving him, and even evolving beyond that, he even managed to break down and consume the Hunter at his most powerful, despite the years of spreading himself like a virus thoughout his 'Evolved'. Perhaps he could make things right. Right with the man that could technically be called a brother in law, or the like, to the viral strain. Make things right with the cold and bitter Dana, the one thing he still had that kept him ground, back in his early days.

Sighing, the man reached into what was considered a jacket, pulling out an old phone. Dana had insisted he carry it, after she woke up, a month or so after the nuke detoniated outside New York. He rarely used it, even less since he was attacked and pushed aside by his doppleganger, but now, hopefully, it might help. A quick text, brief and to the point. _The truth about Mercer. Central Park in an hour. Zeus"_

In an hour, he hoped, he could begin to explain everything, and try, once again, to make amends, for the horrors his existance once again wrought upon this city...


	2. A Tale of Two Mercers

**A/N:**Naturally, I don't own PROTOTYPE, Alex Mercer, James Heller, or any of the other characters and concepts within. They are still the rights of Activision Inc, and Radical Entertainment. I do this, out of love for the first game's characterization of Alex Mercer, and my hatred and revulsion of just what they turned 'him' into during the second. Spoilers, naturally.

* * *

Alex stood within the absolute center of Central Park, the straggling Infected avoiding him, as if he were completely outside their perception. He dared not consume any of this new strain, simply out of the lack of ideas of what an altered blend of Redlight and Blacklight would do to his structure. A hand moved to brush a nonexistent speck of dirt from his coat, a nervous feeling within the portion of the virus' mind that called itself 'Alex', a feeling not felt since two years in the past, when chasing after one of Greene's Hunters as it kidnapped Dana. Would she believe that he was not the thing wearing his face, the beast that walked in Alexander Mercer's footsteps, damning the world because it felt it deserved the world? Would Heller, _Hades_, he thought briefly, chuckling at the idea, believe him, a human strain of the same Red/Blacklight?

He wouldn't have to wait long , however. That hour had passed, and with it, came three figures that were not at all Infected. In front, walked James Heller, his daughter atop his shoulders, and behind him, the one true link to his humanity still, his 'sister', Dana Mercer. Heller's expression changed as soon as he spotted the hooded virus made flesh, almost forgetting his daughter atop him as his arms shifted into the atypical claws that both strains wielded, Alex's hands rising up in a placating manner, as both Dana and his daughter gave him a look. "How the fuck are you still here, how many of you do I have to fucking eat before you stay dead!" the man roared, enraged to the point where he momentarlly forgot about his daughter and her youth, Dana scowling as he finally realized his blunder. "Just one. The Alex Mercer who started this farce is dead...assuming you don't get hit by a nuke like I did..." Alex answered, his pale blue eyes locking with the other man's. "What you...what the _world_ thought was Alex Mercer...wasn't me. Two years ago, I woke up in a morgue, this body being the only thing that remained of a madman who was so focused on his own ego, his own _importance_, that he was willing to damn humanity when he was supposedly not needed, and threatened. Alexander Mercer was a monster, worse then anything you, or even I could ever do. I woke, I hunted, I found out who gave me these abilities, and during the outbreak, I was infected, and yes, I'm well aware of the irony in such a statement. This infection was a cancer, eating away at my very cells. I eventually removed it, but..it consumed something, enough to become self aware...and trying to infect Elizabeth Greene with it was one of the stupidest things I could have done. It got more powerful, grew to a level all it's own, became the Supreme Hunter. We fought upon the Reagan, and like an idiot, I consumed him after cutting his head off..." he continued, sighing as he sat atop a half destroyed bench, Dana with a torn expression on her face, confusion mixed with relief, or perhaps just more confusion.

Either way, he continued. "The nuke, that the media claimed was an accident, was Blacklight's plan to glass the city, to 'curb' the virus, even though it was a headless chicken at this point, due to me taking out both Greene and the Hunter. Regardless, I couldn't let the city be destroyed...so I flew it out to the ocean, it exploded...and I just barely survived... somewhat...I washed up on shore a puddle of flesh, and it took a crow trying to feed on my remains to jumpstart my regeneration again...but in my haste to restore myself...I forgot something..the Hunter somehow survived in that speck of flesh that remained. It had Cross' mind, his skill with tactics...and it also had my accumilated knowledge as well. It waited, biding it's time, until a few months later. Slaughtering the remaining Infected was a smart idea, if only for the fact that it gave me a way to keep myself at full strength without consuming the 'living'. It saved me again that night. He struck, against both me and Bradley Ragland. He was consumed, poor man...he'd probably have been the only one to be able to tell that 'Alex' wasn't the same after that first year. We fought, but he had done some feeding of his own, and managed to defeat me...he kept me alive, wanted me to be stuck, while he did the one thing he could to truly kill me. Destroy what I stood for. He locked me within one of the containers we were using to store the corpses of the Infected in, and tossed me into the bay. I suppose I got lucky, as there was an infected still living inside, just enough to restore me to the point where I could free myself...but by the time I did..it was too late. He had already unleased the second outbreak..."

"Why...why didn't you fight?" Dana asked, a hint of hope in her voice, that her brother, or the brother she truly wanted instead of the one she had for so long, had actually not somehow, in the span of a few months, turned from a being who, while still learning morals, had a sense of true right and wrong, into a complete monster who wanted to do nothing more than destroy humanity. "I couldn't. He defeated me, and somehow...nearly gutted me, ripped nearly every speck of 'me' out of my body when he did so. I was weaker then, then when I woke up, right before I found you, two years ago...I couldn't do a thing as I was. All it would do is get me killed, or worse, either captured by Gentek, or consumed by the Hunter fully..." Heller scowled, a common feature to the former marine, it seemed, as he looked down at the hooded man he blamed for so long. "So you're telling me that this thing..this 'Supreme Hunter' or whatever, survived being consumed, split into some twisted copy of yourself, then took you out, all to then use your form...to spread the virus? Why? What would this..thing get out of doing something like that?" Alex scoffed, shaking his head. "The same thing it wanted when it infected Cross to get to me. It hated the fact that I 'rejected' it, by tearing it out of my body. It was so resentful that it later grew to want to destroy everything I stood for, everything I was, just to spite me, and it worked..." he sighed, continuing. "I was condemned, turned into the very thing I hated, the very reason I was glad to not be 'human', and then, he went after you..." he answered, at this point referring to Dana. "I don't expect either of you to believe me, but-"

He was cut off as Dana dove at him, arms wrapping around his back as she pulled him into a tight hug. "You idiot, why didn't you ever fucking call me! How the hell do you think I felt, having to watch my brother be called a monster! Why didn't you say anything! Give me some sign!" she screamed, tears flowing from her eyes as she slammed her fists down upon his shoulders, the blows feeling like nothing but the wind to the living virus. "I tried...but, I realized that, until the Hunter was dead, you'd just think it was me trying to manipulate you...or that he'd find a way to get to me even more because of you. I'm just lucky he left you alone for as long as he did..." he continued, sighing again, as Heller once again looked down. "Well now what? We can't just go around, telling Blackwatch that 'oh, that was the evil Alex Mercer, this is the good one right here!'..." Alex looked up again, pale blue eyes against Heller's own. "Disquises, we find a way off of this island, and go from there. We just need to find a way to get Dana and your daughter off..." "Rooks. He's head of Blackwatch...killed two of his own goons, just to give me the chance to leave with Maya...he might help..." "You're trusting Blackwatch?" "He just wanted me gone, if that gets us off, I don't care who he is..."

Sighing once more,Alex rose. "Then we'll try it your way... I just hope you have any ideas if this goes south..." he replied. Of course, Alex has his own plans if things truly went the way he expected them, all of which included consuming whomever this 'Rooks' was, but considering that Heller had managed to stop a second infection without the city being firebombed off the map, he'd let the 'younger' Blacklight host take the reins, at least for now. He had some abilities to regain anyway, and the Red Zone had plenty of hives left...


End file.
